Technical Journals
by ScientificHufflepuff
Summary: The ongoing written/filmed/taped observations and discoveries of Dr. Emmett L. Brown, in the field of time travel, its laws and mechanics, and the workings of time machines, as preserved and transcribed by the less haphazard members of his family.
1. The Flux Capacitor

**Nov. 5, 1955**

"This evening, I have had a stunning revelation on the inner workings of time and space, a subject of longtime fascination to me. I have already written down the technical and rough mathematical requirements securely on the most nearby piece of paper while it was still fresh in my mind, but I also feel as though I need to record an explanation for them.

"The device is called the Temporal Flux Capacitor, since to understand it requires the perspective on the flow of time as through an understanding of circuitry. An ordinary capacitor is a means means to store charge, which increases the longer power flows through it, up until a maximum amount of electrons. My device will do the exact same thing, analogous to the flow of the timestream. Merely by existing within a consistent, linear time flow, it will gather and hold indefinitely a "time charge" until a controlled release may be triggered by the traveler. The excess release of temporal energy should be sufficient to break him from a linear causality and fling him to an entirely new era. It's convenient to consider time energy as an analogous particle to an electron, in this case.

"The key to triggering this energy release is a substitution of energy. No, power. If time is a form of energy, and energy over time is power, it would require a _rate_ supplied within a very short span. Or, maybe a longer one. I haven't tested the effects of either yet, or, well, anything yet... -ahem- To discharge the capacitor of its stored temporal energy, an electrical circuit must be activated to charge it with electrons, rendering it an entirely ordinary capacitor. Ordinarily, you could discharge an electrical capacitor by shutting the circuit _off_ , but since I have no way of 'switching off' time, this reaction must be induced directly. Built correctly, the capacitor will only be able to maintain a hold on one form of charge at a time, and release its' former charge to the surrounding area. The circuit input would require power supplied at a rate greater than or equal to the power supplied by the ordinary flow of time, which, as a previously unexplored form of energy, I have not been able to yet calculate the magnitude. The device would have to hold more charge than could be released all at once with this burst of energy, allowing the traveler to control _exactly_ where he wishes to go by adjusting the flow of power. There may be a linear correlation between power and distance, but it's also possible that the initial burst will breach a kind of "Temporal Threshold", and require far less extra input to travel one year versus one hundred.

"Travel might also require some minimum relative velocity or gravitational effect, especially in the case of a Threshold, the slowing effects observed in relativity may decrease the necessary power input for travel.

"I'm not entirely sure which direction the capacitor would send a traveler when time energy is released, yet. It will require further experimentation and calculation. It's possible time may have a charge polarity, as in the 'positive/negative' case of electricity, allowing either 'backwards' _or_ 'forwards' motion, and I can only hope that further study will reveal it."

* * *

 **And now, a note from the writer**

Many thanks to my old Marty RP partner who got me rolling on this subject originally! :D Don't talk to physics students and _highkey_ scifi nerds about fictional time travel, we won't be able to STOP and it's a mess.

I hope to maybe go into some more "time theory" and worldbuilding mechanics, preferably in character as either Doc or maybe Jules. I've already thought a _lot_ about this kind of time travel for some old defunct writing projects, but it'd be fun to put it through the perspective of people who are only just trying to figure it out for themselves, and have continually changing views on it! There may be some tried and failed theories in the mix, like "the universe will explode if you meet yourself", which clearly never posed a problem for Doc or Jen aside from a good deal of shock in Part II, so you can cherry pick the pieces you prefer.

Lastly, I would like to say, any headcanons present here and out are free to use in your own fics, if they're helpful to you! Though credit, if possible, would be nice. Or, tell me where you used it! I'd love to see.


	2. Time and Memory

**1986**

"It occurs to me how little I truly understand about the effects of time and memory. Marty has just recently caught me up on the events of another outing in time, my incarceration in the year 1931, which we'd gone over and resolved almost a month ago already from my perspective. Apparently, our actions had caused an entirely different version of the timeline, in which my first relationship of Miss Edna Strickland had blossomed into a totalitarian rule of the _entirety_ of Hill Valley.

"Picking him up again _back_ from 1931, however, Edna went back and rewrote the _entire_ history of the town. Except, in this particular case, my memory and self remained completely intact as the town square faded from existence around us. Coming home, I find Edna walks my dog on a daily basis - _is_ it daily?-, and married Kid Tannen, the cause of the whole mess in the first place. There has to be _some_ underlying reason why in one version of changed history, my self and personality were altered completely, and why in the next version I remain the same. And why, for that matter, despite every change that time has gone through, Marty has retained complete recollection of what I believe to be the 'original' version of history, with a completely different dynamic within the McFly family, and the renaming of the mall in which our initial experiment was conducted.

"Was it because it was _my_ past which had been _directly_ interfered with? And all the events directly changed occurring before Marty's birth? When Edna burned down the town, it was before my time, leaving me incapable of knowing about the interference. With more than one time machine in play though, the issue of memory may prove to be more complicated than ever.

"Another theory I have is a type of 'concentric circles' hierarchy of the ability of a traveler to alter one person's memories over another. Because Marty had been a time traveler 'before' me, and myself 'before' Edna, a traveler can only alter the memory of the person below them in the ranking, which would why Clara believes all the things that have changed since I left were actually normal. If this were the case, I suppose Einstein could overwrite us all... I wish I could _ask_ him what he still remembers. I need to finish that brain-wave analyzer...

"One other way I could test it is by attempting to alter Marty's past myself. I'm not sure if he would approve of the idea.

"The last theory is that a person cannot have their memories altered _outside_ of their home time, explaining Marty and myself after the Expo, my lack of recollecting my own gravestone in 1885, and Marty in general. But I've lived ten years outside of the 1980s, technically belonging in the 1990s now, and I was still overwritten to become 'Citizen Brown'. The easiest explanation overall would be that only the one actively traveling was immune, since Marty has been at the eye of the storm, as they say, and still remembers the original, but it wouldn't explain how Edna was unable to overwrite us both in the 1930s even after she took the car.

"Alternately, there is no particular law or rule to it in that sense. It could all be particular combinations of the speed of the ripple effect through meta-time, giving off patterns where they shouldn't be. But even after a year, Marty still refers to the 'Twin Pines Mall', while the original threat to his existing caught up with him within a week. I'd have to solve for the speed of meta-time and compare dates..."


End file.
